The truth is often more frightening than fiction

Kathie Costos
January 1, 2023

The truth is often more frightening than fiction. A lesson I'm taking away from watching A Haunting In Salem. It is passed off as "based on" events and history, but the real story is far more frightening than this. I was fascinated reading reviews with the words "spin tingling" along that line as if they are trying to sell it more than review it. I did find some honest reviews, and so can you, but for now, I am just letting you know the basis for today's post.

I'm researching the next book for The Ministers Of The Mystery. I've watched many documentaries that are factual. Right now they scare the crap out of me knowing that people can cause so much damage to others because of hatred and are greedy for revenge.

Those first accused of witchcraft in Salem Village were outcasts, poor and a lot of them were lonely. It wasn't until the people of the village discovered how easy it was to do all of it that they went after more people including a minister who left Salem Village almost 10 years before he was hunted down in Wells Maine, brought back to Salem Village, tried and hung. When you read about Reverend George Burroughs, make sure you don't do it with a full stomach. The more I read about him, the more nauseated I became. If you didn't know about him, don't feel bad. A lot of people didn't know.

In the process of searching for information on A Haunting In Salem, I discovered a puzzling claim passed off as fact. 

Found wrong information on Dorothy Good

Dorothy Good was just 4 years old and charged with witchcraft. The following is from History Of Massachusetts and Dorothy was not hung. A lot of people knew children were the accusers, but few knew they were accusing other children too.

Although Dorothy was just a child, the depositions accuse her of physically hurting and torturing the girls, as can be seen in Ann Putnam, Jr.’s, deposition:

“The deposition of Ann Putnam who testifieth and saith that on the 3rd March 1691/92 I saw the apparition of Dorothy Good, Sarah Good’s daughter, who did immediately almost choke me and tortured me most grievously; and so she hath several times since tortured me by biting and pinching and almost choking me tempting me also to write in her book and also on the day of her examination being the 24th of March 1691/92 the apparition of Dorothy Good tortured me during the time of her examination and several times since.”

Dorothy Good spent seven to eight months in jail before being released and, as a result of the experience, she was never the same,

As you can see, the child was not hung. She went on to live with the memories of her mother being hung after giving birth in jail, and her newborn perished. Little Dorothy had to be subjected to so much horror, that she deserved the truth but apparently the above did not care to discover what the truth was.

Since witches were often shackled in jail, something like shackles must have been adapted to fit little Dorothy, the youngest person in Salem accused of practicing the devil’s magic. Over the next year, more than 150 women, men, and children from Salem Village (present-day Danvers) and neighboring communities were formally accused of practicing witchcraft. A third of those arrested confessed but were not necessarily given lighter sentences. In all, 19 were hanged, one pressed to death, and five others died in jail. (NEH)

As for Dorothy, by all accounts, she was never the same and "went insane" because of what she was put through. Lord only knows what happened to the children of the others accused. We now know that none of the others charged with witchcraft but survived, were ever the same after the lies told about them, the incarcerations, the tortures, and the suffering because of what their "neighbors" decided to do to them. I think that is the most terrifying thing of all.